Thursday, February 19, 2015 - Every new gear company tries to make adventuring a little easier. Some succeed, some don't. GearPods manages to bundle together some core components for every adventure; cool stuff for the beginner or as backup gear.Read More »

Attention adventurers! Attention hikers! Attention trail runners! Attention bikers! Remember that hot, muggy summer day that suddenly turned into a cool (almost cold), muggy summer night? Remember starting your dune climb in a blistering heat at the bottom and then upon arrival at an overlook for the ocean or a Great Lake, getting hit with [...]Read More »

You know that spring or summer rainstorm/monsoon/torrent that we all inevitably end up in at the most unexpected and inopportune time? Say, when you need to fill the gas tank or just as you arrive at the campsite but haven’t yet setup? “Infrequent” may describe how often these scenarios occur, still, they happen. Good [...]Read More »

As I stomped through a canyon outside of Moab, Utah I stumbled upon an oddly shaped outcrop of red rock. I was intrigued and immediately started examining the surrounding area. As I moved to the sunlit side of the outcrop, my eye caught a glint coming from an object on the ground. I knelt to [...]Read More »

Gone are the days of treating your home bar as if it were yours and yours only. No, these in-house-drink-serving-places-of-relaxation can be more than just an extra room to kick back and play pool; they can be shared and enjoyed by many. For example, the home bar can be the focal point of a night [...]Read More »

Hike. Camp. Adventure. Ninja. That’s right, be a ninja and protect your food. You’re camping and you’ve just made the campfire classic, a hobo pie. Amazingly (and we’re not kidding, it is amazing) there is a rare leftover slice that you can save until the morning. A slice of leftover hobo pie for breakfast heated [...]Read More »

This smartphone looks promising. We here at Black Rucksack are always skeptical of phrases and claims such as “optimized to endure against the most rugged outdoor conditions”. Why are we skeptical? Because we are adept at pushing gear to its limits; we enjoy breaking testing gear. The Galaxy Xcover 2 includes U.S.-based GPS and Russia’s [...]Read More »

The Little Manistee River in northern Michigan serves as a gauntlet for any water shoe. This river has many different types of difficult to navigate riverbeds including: small and loose pebbles, soft sand, slippery clay and large boulders. The Teva Sunkosi 2 water shoe is made to conquer exactly these types of riverbed challenges. Teva, [...]Read More »

Editor’s Note: This is post #50! It has been 174 days or 5 months and 23 days since the first Black Rucksack post and we’ve come a long way! Since the first post, we’ve posted regularly on Tuesday and Thursdays, added over 350 RSS, Twitter and Facebook followers, launched the Black Rucksack Life Hack and [...]Read More »

Verbosity has its time and its place. For instance, when I’m checking for hockey scores and highlights in the morning, I don’t want to read an entire article to get to marrow of the game. I want to keep verbosity out of that morning pleasantry. However, when I am roving for information on new gear [...]Read More »

I’ve been in two violent thunderstorms while driving across Nebraska on Interstate 80 (I-80) between California and Michigan, the first was in February of 2007. Days earlier I installed new windshield wipers on my Escape, and of that I was thankful. During that storm, even though many cars and trucks pulled off the road, my [...]Read More »

Leatherman, known for their multi-tools, also produces an LED flashlight worth noting… the Serac S3. As we all know, a flashlight typically has at least a few fragile components. Therefore, often it is essential to take close care of your flashlight. That does not work for me because I treat my flashlight just like any [...]Read More »

Doc Martens… they’re like a vacation for your feet. I don’t consider Doc Martens the quintessential footwear but they do make a lot of choice gear. And one such piece of gear that is perfect for this summer season is their Robson Ringo Open Toe Sandal. Every single pair of Docs I’ve owned have been [...]Read More »

Editor’s Note: Happy Birthday to the youngest Swider, William! He’s four! In a world of IPAs, lagers and whisky it’s easy for a guy to ignore wine. That said, we want to make something clear… do… not… ignore… wine. We won’t go into all of the merits of wine here. Just remember, there is [...]Read More »

Snowboarding is one way I know I can relax. I snowboard mostly in Michigan but, many years ago I ventured to Durango, Colorado. I learned a lot from that experience including how the difference in the snowpack was drastic. One concern in Colorado, that we don’t see hardly ever in Michigan, was avalanches. If an [...]Read More »

Ducati is a prominent brand of high performance motorcycles and likewise, they hock quality apparel and gear. As an Italian manufacturer typically associated with racing bikes, they’ve also achieved notoriety for their sport/street bikes. The Ducati Meccanica Hooded Sweatshirt is one of the many faultless ways to show your affinity for the brand. It’s one [...]Read More »